I am more than embarrassed to admit this but it seems that the Baltimore County Police and Fire Departments are becoming our best friends.  This morning, it was just Ellie, not both her and Mark.  It was the bathroom, not the bedroom.  I was by myself, because Nik had already left for school.  But other than that, same story, second verse, a little bit louder, and a little bit worse.

Of course, Ellie decided to lock herself in the bathroom during the only six minutes of the whole morning while I was on the phone.  And of course, even though I was trying to be independent and unlock the door myself, although I got the lock apart, I couldn’t open it.  The needle-nose pliers we used last time didn’t fit in this door.  And so I called 911, AGAIN.  This time the firemen got here first and one of them was fairly quickly able to open it (by brute force more than anything.)

The bathroom was the only room where we’d left a non-disabled lock (after last time, Nik disabled the rest of them).  We figured privacy in the bathroom, particularly for our guests, was worth the risk.  Turns out – it wasn’t.

So for now, the handle looks like this:

and later on, we’ll permanently disable that lock too.  (Sorry friends.)

Now, I’m just hoping the Fire Department isn’t keeping a “crazy mom who always lets her kids lock themselves in” list.

And we’re exceedingly grateful to our friend Jana, who called us on a whim to ask if she could bring us lunch.  YES!  We were all glad for a little company to help us calm down! 🙂